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Clothing and footwear sales last month suffered the steepest annual fall for any December in nearly a decade, according to official figures that confirmed the dismal situation on the high street.

The non-seasonally adjusted value of sales fell by 1.5 per cent compared with the same time a year earlier, the biggest drop for a December since 2003, the Office for National Statistics said.

Overall, seasonally adjusted retail sales volumes were up by only 0.3 per cent compared with the same time in December 2011, well below the 1.1 per cent growth forecast by analysts. Volumes fell by 0.1 per